Should I have read…?

As an avid reader and a writer there are some books I feel that I ‘should have’ read. The times when someone asks ‘have you read anything by ‘so-and-so” and I have to cringe-worthily say ‘no’. So to avoid future embarrassment on my part, I’ve had a good think about authors – not necessarily books – that I feel should be read. I’m not talking reading everything they’ve ever written but, just reading something by them. I written down a list for you, in no particular order….

I haven’t included every author that I fancy reading. I’m sure – and know that there are dozens I’ve missed off the list. But I’ve narrowed it down to 26. Some of them I have already read, some I haven’t. I also haven’t included all the ‘classics’ writers – that’ll make up a very comprehensive list of its own if I did. Instead, I’ve tried to chose from different eras from the classics to modern greats to modern man-booker prize winners.

So what are they…?

a)      Ian Fleming

b)      Agatha Christie

c)       Either Charlotte or Emily Brontë (I know this can count as two – but I feel I should have at least read a book by one of them)

d)      Jane Austen

e)      William Shakespeare

f)       Charles Dickens

g)      Bernard Cornwell

h)      Ernest Hemingway

i)        George Orwell

j)        Sylvia Plath

k)      Hilary Mantell

l)        Arthur C. Clarke

m)    Philip K. Dick

n)      JRR Tolkien

o)      P G Wodehouse

p)      Jules Verne

q)      Stephen King

r)       Ken Follett

s)       Virginia Woolf

t)       Salman Rushdie

u)      Doris Lessing

v)      Oscar Wilde

w)    Leo Tolstoy

x)      Arthur Conan Doyle

y)      James Joyce

z)       Aldous Huxley

 

How many have you read?

Do you have any others you can think of that ‘must’ be read – again authors in general, not specific books?

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: classics, fiction, great writers, man booker prize, reading, reading list